


First Line of Defense

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Arguing, Brother-Sister Relationships, Bullying, Disappointment, Dysfunctional Family, First Day of School, Fluff and Mush, Friendship/Love, Gentleman William, Kid Fic, Major Character Injury, Making Up, Multiple Selves, Mutual Pining, Nervousness, Non-Graphic Violence, Playgrounds, Pre-Canon, Promises, Protectiveness, Sadness, Showing Off, Surprises, Unrequited Crush, Who Killed Markiplier Universe, Young Love, anger issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 15:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12820443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: Celine and Damien haven't been getting along very well lately, which is why Celine isn't paying enough attention to what's happening to her brother on the playground. When she finally notices...Well, it's been said before that her temper often gets the better of her.





	First Line of Defense

**Author's Note:**

> Are there any WKM kid fics out there? Anywhere?! Well, if they are out there, there aren't enough!
> 
> In this story, Celine is Damien's older sister (since in real life Pam is actually older than Mark); I'd say Damien is around eleven and Celine, Mark and William are around thirteen years old. At the moment, Celine and Mark both like each other but aren't dating yet and Celine still doesn't know about Will's crush on her.

Damien wasn’t one for confrontation, to say the least. He was at the young, tentative age where he was desperately eager to get along with everyone and hopelessly confused when he failed. He didn’t seem to understand the concept of anger; whenever he was part of an argument, he only resorted to shouting if he thought it would make the other person stop and otherwise he completely shut down and ran. Even his secondhand anxiety when he saw others arguing was near crushing.

Once, when she was in the process of calming him down after a fight between their parents, Celine had asked him why he never got angry. For a long minute he’d simply stared at her, looking almost betrayed, and then he’d ducked his head.

“I do,” he whispered. “But I don’t want to. I just want everyone everywhere to _like_ each other.”

Celine wasn’t at all like him; she was more than willing to get into a fight if it meant having her way and while their parents often took the brunt of her temper, there were times when Damien was nosy or clingy or too observant for his own good. It was infuriating and Celine wasn’t one to keep her mouth shut. Frankly, he was an easy target. What followed, however…the color draining from his face, the half-stifled sob, his fingers wringing into the hem of his suit jacket as he crept away from her…It made her feel guiltier than she had ever imagined she could feel. In her shame, she couldn’t apologize.

She still hadn’t apologized when his first day at her school came around. They had been avoiding each other for a few days now, but their mother had insisted they hold hands on the walk there and her brother’s palm was decidedly sweaty. He was nervous. She ought to say _something_ , but she tried to ignore that urge by listening to the conversation between their two close friends, Mark and William, who were a little further ahead.

Even that was fairly boring, she realized, pouting a little. All they talked about were the new students who were arriving today. Will was going on about how he was going to prank the younger ones mercilessly and Mark was just nodding incessantly as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. From there Celine simply tuned Will out and watched Mark, wishing that _he_ was the one holding her hand instead of Damien.

As soon as the school was in sight, Celine withdrew her fingers from his and Damien met her eyes, swallowing hard. It was a rather tentative faceoff.

“I—I don’t know where the front office is,” he ventured.

That was the first thing he said to her in three days? For reasons beyond her understanding, Celine felt another wave of old anger at that. “It’s at the front, obviously,” she huffed, making a vague gesture toward the doors and then moving in the direction Mark and Will had gone. “I need to go or I’ll be late.”

“Celine, wait!” Damien burst out, clutching at her arm. “I—I just—I thought you were going to stay a little longer.”

“I can’t,” she shot back, whisking her arm out of his reach. “And you shouldn’t either or we’ll _both_ be late and get in trouble.” As she strode away, she didn’t see Damien shuffle a few steps after her and didn’t hear his mumbled plea:

“But I don’t know where my first class is…”

***

The day passed well for Celine, all things considered, and she did her best to enjoy it, despite the voice in the back of her head insisting that she had been too harsh with Damien ( _again_ ) and ought to make up with him already.

Around midafternoon, when the students were let outside for a break, she couldn’t help but look around for him. It wasn’t long before she saw him branching off from the rest of his class, with a group of five or six following close behind. It looked like he had made some new friends in his class, which meant he must be faring pretty well, right?

“Celine!” Will called, recapturing her attention. “Do you want a turn on the swing?” Grinning widely, he bobbed a brief bow next to the open seat and added, “I can push you!”

“No, I will!” Mark countered, nudging the indignant Will aside with his shoulder and gesturing invitingly for Celine to hurry over. That she did, biting her lip against her excitement and hoping that the hair framing her cheeks would hide her blush. Judging by the way Mark smiled and winked when she reached him, she wasn’t fooling him.

She couldn’t help but giggle breathlessly as she perched on the swing, tucking the folds of her skirt between her knees, but she stilled almost instantly as he put his warm hands on her shoulders to give her some momentum.

“You ready?” he asked, his voice close to her ear.

“Of course,” she assured him, wishing she didn’t sound so shy. With those words and a firm push from Mark, she was off, soaring up toward the branches and squealing gleefully. William leaned against the tree from which the swing was suspended, folding his arms over his chest and watching the two of them laugh. He didn’t join in, but he did stay and when Celine glanced over at him, he smiled for her.

Swinging with Mark at her back and Will at her side, Celine could say she was genuinely happy  and content for the first time today! Why couldn’t it be like this more often? Though they were easily the best of friends, they didn’t get to spend very much time together apart from school. Will was often away on explorations with his parents and Mark, while he lived close, wasn’t allowed to visit often. His parents wanted him to spend more time thinking about his future and what he was meant to make of it. Moments like these, however, made everything worth it.

A high-pitched noise from across the grounds broke through her reverie, sending her quite literally back to earth. Mark caught hold of the swing as it came down and Celine glanced over her shoulder at him curiously. Pushing himself off the tree, William strode a few feet away from them, peering off into the distance at the growing commotion.

“By the stars, is that Damien?” he asked with a start.

No sooner had he asked did he receive his answer; Damien streaked away from the group of five or six classmates he was with, tugging violently at his knotted tie with one hand and scrubbing his face with the other. No, it was more than that, Celine realized as she lunged to her feet. He was shielding his left eye.

“Damien!” she hollered, moving to intercept him. He sped up incrementally as she got closer but she had a long reach and caught ahold of his arm easily, pulling him to a halt. “What was that about? What happened?”

“Nothing,” he answered hurriedly, barely looking at her as he tried to duck away from her hands.

“Let me see,” she ordered, not to be turned away. As soon as she pried his fingers away from his eye, she spotted the telltale redness of a bruise forming on his cheekbone. Her grip on his wrist tightened as she took a sharp breath. “What’s this? They _hit_ you? I thought you were making friends!”

Perhaps he thought she was being accusatory because as soon as he heard that, he pulled further against her and protested, “It’s nothing, Celine. They were just playing around—It was an accident—” The rest of his words were lost in an alarmed gasp as he threw himself sideways, narrowly dodging a rock that whizzed past.

As soon as it clattered to the ground, Will picked it up, moving closer to grip Damien’s shoulder with his free hand as he growled, “That’s not playing.”

“Damien! Are you ready to learn the rest of your lesson?!” one of his classmates called tauntingly as he scooped up another rock. A few others in the group followed suit and Celine could feel Damien practically vibrating with nervous tension.

“What lesson would that be?” Mark barked back, already doubling his fists on behalf of their friend.

The supposed leader of the group seemed surprised at Mark’s interjection but spread his arms out expectantly. “He thought he could join our class without paying his dues! We tried to talk to him and he wouldn’t talk back! What’s it to you? We just need to get it into his stupid head that he can’t be one of us if he’s not going to talk!”

“Excuse me, _what_ did you say about my brother?” Celine spat, steering Damien back toward Mark and Will and surging forward in one motion. She drew herself up, staring at them with deadly, narrowed concentration. “I asked you a _question_.”

If Mark speaking up had surprised them, hearing it from a girl was even more irregular. The boy eventually recovered himself. “He’s stupid,” he repeated shamelessly, readjusting his hold on the rock, “and we need to teach him a lesson!”

“Is that so?! Well, here’s _your_ lesson!” Snatching the hefty stone out of William’s hand, Celine reeled and launched it back at them. Before it even made impact she was picking up another, another, and another, hurling each of them with more force than the last. Even as the group started ducking and scattering for cover, she kept coming, shouting disjointedly between her pitches, “ _No one—calls my brother—stupid!_ ”

It was only when they were sprinting toward the doors of the school that Celine registered Damien’s voice, hoarse with panic.

“—’s enough! Enough! Celine, stop!”

When she turned, the first thing she saw was the shocked expression on her little brother’s face, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel guilty about it this time. She glanced at their friends. Mark looked grimly impressed by her display, and Will? To Celine’s mild amusement, he looked like he might be in love.

“I don’t think they’re going to hurt you again,” Celine said simply as she returned to them.

“Cel…” Damien began, sputtering slightly as he struggled for words.

“You don’t need to listen to anything they say, Dam,” Celine assured him, taking his hands between her own and squeezing firmly. “But you do need to know this: no matter how angry I may be with you, I'm not going to just stand by and let someone hurt you. No matter who they are. Alright?”

Damien hesitated, letting these words sink in. It was as close to an apology as he was likely to get with her fired up like this. With a small nod and a returning squeeze, he echoed softly, “Alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> ...As explanation for this, let's just say Darkiplier's penchant for violence had to come from somewhere. ^^"
> 
> I hope you enjoyed Celine's craziness as much as Will and Mark did! Leave a kudos or a comment to tell me what you thought; I'd love to hear from you!


End file.
